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Astroglial amino acid-based transmitter receptors

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Abstract

Amino acids appear in prebiotic period being one of the first organic molecules on Earth. For neurobiologists, it is of importance that AAs are not only representing building blocks of life, but are also the essential part of metabolism and cellular signaling. In the mammalian brain, the most common excitatory and inhibitory transmitters acting upon cellular plasmalemmal receptors are the amino acid glutamate and its derivative γ-aminobutyric acid, respectively. Other amino acids, i.e. aspartate, glycine, d-serine, and homocysteic acid, as well as the sulfonic acid taurine, are also active compounds involved in receptor-mediated brain signaling. Receptors for these amino acid-based transmitters are either ion channels, also referred to as ionotropic receptors, or metabotropic, i.e. seven transmembrane domain G-protein coupled receptors. In this mini-review, we focus our interest on amino acid-based transmitter receptors on neuroglia, astrocytes in particular.

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Acknowledgments

Authors’ research was supported by Alzheimer’s Research Trust (UK) Programme Grant (ART/PG2004A/1) to A.V.; and by National Science Foundation (CBET 0943343) Grant to V.P.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology, Center for Glial Biology in Medicine, Atomic Force Microscopy and Nanotechnology Laboratories, Civitan International Research Center, Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, 35294, USA

    Vladimir Parpura

  2. Department of Biotechnology, University of Rijeka, 51000, Rijeka, Croatia

    Vladimir Parpura

  3. Faculty of Life Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK

    Alexei Verkhratsky

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  1. Vladimir Parpura
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Correspondence to Vladimir Parpura or Alexei Verkhratsky.

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Parpura, V., Verkhratsky, A. Astroglial amino acid-based transmitter receptors. Amino Acids 44, 1151–1158 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-013-1458-4

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